Advisors feel the sting of oil declines

by Will Ashworth27 Mar 2015

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Advisors feel the sting of oil declines

A Yale professor highlights why oil prices are throwing a wrench into the plans of advisors in Newfoundland and throughout the Maritimes whose clients could soon be affected by Alberta’s ongoing malaise.

WP sister publication Canadian Real Estate Wealth magazine published an article Thursday on its website that discussed Canada’s housing market and the impending doom that seems to have set in thanks to a new book by Edmonton-based advisor Hilliard MacBeth that’s calling for a big correction – 40 percent or more – in housing prices.

Yale professor and global investor Vikram Mansharamani believes Canadian house prices are set to take a tumble suggesting, “It’s not unreasonable that we could see house prices fall by 30 to 50 per cent.”

While a very passionate subject amongst CREW readers, especially those living in the GTA, it’s the comments by Mansharamani about Alberta’s faltering economy and the indirect effect on the Maritimes that’s caught our attention.

“Without the Alberta employment gains, Canada would have a nine per cent unemployment rate,” said Mansharamani. “It is oil that has helped create that strong economy.”

And here’s where the “fly boys” come into play, those energetic people who commute from Newfoundland and the other provinces on the east coast to work in Alberta’s energy sector and the various runoff jobs in other industries.

“If there isn’t the work, they’re not going to fly to Alberta,” Mansharamani added. “If they’re at home, what does that do to the labour markets in each of those local regions?”